This invention relates to an apparatus for supplying food dough such as confectionary dough, bread dough, or other dough made of flour. Particularly, it relates to an apparatus and a method for forming food dough into a belt or sheet, and then cutting it into pieces of food dough that have predetermined weights, so that they can be continuously made.
Usually, when food dough is prepared by a manufacturing line, the system called a four-row line system is used for such a manufacturing line. It has a mechanism having a piston and cylinder. After the cylinder is filled with a block of bread dough, the block is rotated and cut into pieces that have predetermined sizes. As a result, a high pressure and a large shearing stress may be given to the bread dough, so that the structure of the gluten in the dough can be broken. To recover that structure a chemical additive and an overhead proofer are used. The proofer is used in a step that is carried out after the step for rolling the bread dough, so as to give it a rest, so that the structure can be recovered. Such an apparatus is large. The proofer is additional. Thus, the line that includes it is large. Thus, a small apparatus is desired. Also, it is desired that a high-quality bread be made.
Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 11-155464 discloses an apparatus for supplying food dough. It has a hopper to which a large block of food dough is supplied. Also, it has a cutter that is located below the lower opening of the hopper. The large block of the food dough that is supplied to the hopper is cut into pieces that have predetermined lengths and constant volumes. Those pieces are fed by a conveyor that is located below the cutter into a forming hopper. That hopper has a dough-feeder section that is comprised of a plurality of rollers that are arranged as a V. When the dough is supplied to that section, it is formed into a sheet by the plurality of the rollers of the dough feeder. Then, it is put on a conveyor that is located below the dough feeder, and transferred to a following apparatus to be processed by it.
The apparatus for supplying food dough allows a large block of food dough to be continuously formed as a sheet. Then, pieces of the dough are cut out from it. In that case, scraps of food dough may remain. They do not have any certain sizes and thus cannot usefully be used. Thus, it is desired that a system can usefully use the scraps to prevent them from being wasted.
Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication Nos. 46-6932 and 60-110237 disclose an apparatus for cutting a dough sheet into pieces that have predetermined weights. It feeds a dough sheet along its length. Then, a weighing apparatus continuously measures the weight of the dough sheet as the sheet is being fed. When the weight corresponds to a predetermined value, a cutter is operated to cut the sheet into a piece of dough that has a predetermined weight. For example, the cutter is located in a facility for making bread or confectionery, and is used to prepare a piece of dough that has a predetermined weight.
The kind and shape of bread varies depending on the variations in taste. Thus, it is desired that an apparatus for preparing bread or confectionery make many kinds and various shapes of them.
The applicant of this application proposes some kinds of apparatuses for first forming food dough into a sheet of dough. Also, it proposes an apparatus for making some kinds of food products that are made from the sheet of dough after it is cut into pieces that have various weights according to the kinds of products. The prior-art apparatus only measures a narrow range of weights of the sheet of dough when it is cut into pieces. Thus, it is desired that it have a cutting apparatus that can measure a wider range of weights, so that many kinds of products can be made.
The kinds of weights and sizes of products that the conventional apparatus can make are few. Thus, an apparatus and method for cutting food dough is desired that can make products having various weights and sizes over a wide range.
To overcome the disadvantages discussed above this invention was conceived. According to the first concept of this invention, an apparatus for supplying food dough is provided. The apparatus is comprised of a hopper to which a large block of food dough is supplied, a cutting apparatus located at the lower opening port of the hopper to cut the block into small blocks that have substantially the same volume, a dough feeder having a plurality of rollers that are arranged as a V to form the small blocks into a sheet of food dough, a transferring conveyor to transfer the small blocks to the dough feeder, a feeding conveyor to convey the sheet of the food dough that is formed by the dough feeder so that it has a constant thickness, a weighing conveyor measuring the weight of the part of the sheet that is conveyed by the feeding conveyor and that is put on the weighing conveyor as the sheet is being conveyed, and a cutting apparatus for cutting the sheet of food dough when the measurement by the weighing conveyor corresponds to a preset value.
The weighing conveyor includes first and second weighing conveyors that are serially arranged in the feeding direction. The second weighing conveyor again measures the part of the sheet of the food dough that is cut out from the sheet after it is measured by the first weighing conveyor. The timing of the cutting operation of the cutting apparatus is accelerated or delayed, when the measurement of the second weighing conveyor does not correspond to the preset value.
Both the first and second weighing conveyors can together measure a part of the sheet of the food dough. The sum of the measurements is compared with the preset value.
The second weighing conveyor again measures the part of the sheet of the food dough that is cut out from the sheet after it is measured by the first weighing conveyor. The timing of the cutting operation of the cutting apparatus is accelerated or delayed, when the measurement of the second weighing conveyor does not correspond to the preset value.
A flour-supplying apparatus may be located upstream of the feeding conveyor. It supplies flour to the feeding surface of the feeding conveyor to prevent the sheet of the food dough that is supplied from the dough feeder from adhering to the feeding surface.
Also, a pair of flour-supplying apparatuses may be appropriately located. They can be located near the side surfaces of the feeding conveyor to supply flour to the sides of the sheet of food dough that is supplied by the dough feeder and conveyed by the feeding conveyor.
A flour-supplying apparatus may be located downstream of the feeding conveyor. It supplies flour on the upper surface of the sheet of food dough.
An apparatus is located downstream of the feeding conveyor to remove flour from the bottom surface of the sheet of food dough that is conveyed by the feeding conveyor.
An apparatus is located downstream of the flour-supplying apparatus to remove flour from the upper surface of the sheet of food dough. The flour is supplied by the flour-supplying apparatus.
A photo sensor may be located near the input port of the dough feeder. It monitors food dough deposited at a given position on the dough feeder. Based on the results of the monitoring, the feeding speed of the transferring conveyor is controlled to keep constant the input of the food dough from the transferring conveyor.
Also, a photo sensor may be located near the output port of the dough feeder. It monitors food dough that is output from the dough feeder and put on the feeding conveyor. Based on the results of the monitoring, the speed of the output of the dough feeder is controlled to prevent the sheet of the sheet of the food dough that is output from the dough feeder from being loose.
The second weighing conveyor may be longer than the first weighing conveyor.
The upstream end of the weighing conveyor is arranged at a position that is higher than that of the downstream end of the feeding conveyor. The cutting apparatus is located between the position where the sheet of the food dough starts to be taken off the feeding conveyor and the position where the sheet of food dough starts to contact the weighing conveyor.
According to the second concept of this invention, another apparatus for supplying food dough is provided. The apparatus is comprised of a hopper to which a large block of food dough is supplied, a cutting apparatus located at a lower opening port of the hopper to cut the block into small blocks that have substantially the same volume, a dough feeder having a plurality of rollers that are arranged as a V to form the small blocks into a sheet of the food dough, a transferring conveyor to transfer the small blocks to the dough feeder, a feeding conveyor to convey the sheet of the food dough that is formed by the dough feeder to have a constant thickness, an alignment apparatus to adjust the center of the sheet of the food dough that is conveyed by the feeding conveyor, a dividing and separating apparatus located downstream of the alignment apparatus to divide the sheet of the food dough in the feeding direction, weighing conveyors to measure the weight of parts of the sheets that are divided from the sheet and that are put on the weighing conveyors as the sheets are being conveyed, and cutting apparatuses for cutting the sheets of the food dough when the measurements of the weighing conveyors correspond to a preset value.
The dividing and separating apparatus divides the sheet of the food dough into two or more sheets in the feeding direction.
The weighing conveyors, which are arranged in parallel, can be made to approach or retract from each other.
According to the third concept of this invention, a method for supplying food dough is provided. It includes the steps of forming a block of food dough into a sheet that has a given width and thickness, supplying the sheet of the food dough to first and second weighing conveyors located serially along the feeding direction for measuring the weight of a part of the sheet, measuring the weight of a part of the sheet with the first and second weighing conveyors, and cutting the part of the sheet when the sum of the measurements of the first and second weighing conveyors or the measurement of the second weighing conveyor correspond to a preset value, with a cutting apparatus located upstream of the first and second weighing conveyors.
According to the fourth concept of this invention, a method for supplying food dough is provided. It includes the steps of forming a block of food dough into a sheet that has a given width and thickness, supplying the sheet of the food dough to a plurality of first weighing conveyors arranged in parallel, and cutting a part of the sheet when the sum of the measurements of the first weighing conveyors correspond to a preset value, or when the sheet is supplied to second weighing conveyors arranged in parallel and the sum of the measurements of the first and second weighing conveyors correspond to the preset value or the sum of the measurements of the second weighing conveyors correspond to the preset value.